Mechanotransduction and sensory information coding

Detection of mechanical stimuli is important in many human functions. Mechanical sensitivity underlies the senses of touch, hearing, balance and awareness of limb and joint positions. It also gives important internal feedback to organs such as the heart, lungs and stomach to control things like blood pressure, respiration rate and pulse rate. We are trying to understand the fundamental processes that allow us to detect mechanical stimuli, and also how information from such stimuli is coded and transmitted to the central and autonomic nervous systems. A special feature of our research is the use of a range of quantitative methods that engineers have developed for understanding how machines can be controlled and kept stable during rapid movements and other changes. These methods are particularly useful for understanding the time-varying properties of sensory receptors, such as the different mechanisms required for a touch receptor compared to a vibration receptor. In humans and other vertebrate animals, mechanically sensitive cells, such as those in the tips of the fingers, are too small for us to record the electrical signals produced by external stimuli near the places where these signals are first detected. Instead, we use preparations from model animals such as spiders that have large vibration detecting neurons that are well suited to these experiments. Although insects and spiders are very different animals to humans, their basic mechanisms of sensation and nervous signaling seem to be very similar. Increased understanding of how mechanical stimuli are detected should eventually create drugs and therapies that allow us to modulate crucial regulatory processes. For example, drugs that could raise the sensitivity of pressure detectors in the heart, arteries and veins would be useful for reducing blood pressure. Similar possibilities exist for respiratory function, gastrointestinal motility and muscle contraction.